Doing my first 24hr race in a few months. How would *you* prepare?

Done a few ultras but nothing that long. I found increasing mileage really helped. No idea how you'd prepare for something that long though.

Presumably it's one of those short, flat looped courses. If so, run in loops for a few long runs in training might help mentally.

Not sure I'd bothering walking in training deliberately but I'd be open to doing it if having a bad day on a long run.

Wouldn't do any faster running though. Definitely would put all my energies into high mileage for something like that.

Total beast of a race. Good luck to you!

I've never run a race longer than 10k and never plan to (and would love to never run another 10k).

I would add one or two all-night hikes into my training. I would also do some easy night runs by headlamp on similar terrain to the race.

24hr Racer wrote:

So I have entered a 24hr race.

lol

Start an Instagram account. Become a vegan and start posting how great your lifestyle is. Stop shaving. Get a trucker hat. Go for long jogs on the beach. Replace your speedwork intervals with eating while gone for a hike. Take up yoga and start talking about how you can feel and sense the "vibrations" and "energy" and spend $10 on bite size paleo brownies. Listen to crap indie music and watch crap indie movies. in your spare time.

No fap until race day. Then transform all of your spiritual energy and turn it into your Ultra Instinct.

https://media.giphy.com/media/84CRvhy2DJlwA/giphy.gif

Surely the biggest factor will be plain muscle fatigue so some strength work might be helpful. I read that Jordan Hassey was doing strength work post long run to increase strength work at the end of a marathon. Perhaps some adaptation of that principle might help you.

And ignore the idiots. Hopefully you'll get more good advice than fools.

I've done a 24h track race and run a 100 that was close to 24h along with a couple of other events that took 18ish hours and here's what I experienced generally although of course your mileage may vary.

- On the track race, my hip flexors were my weak point and ultimately they cost me big time because I'd done no specific training to strengthen them

- Running for 24 hours obviously requires some degree of walking but I didn't bother training to walk / hike because I just didn't have time and I figured running between 50-70mpw was enough to give me the fitness to complete both events and other longer ultras (it was)

- Eating on the go in these events is a personal thing as to what sits well but because you're moving pretty slow it's fairly easy to get calories down and keep them down

- Generally my training was what I'd roughly do for a marathon so getting a 20 miler in at the weekend worked for me and doing much more takes my a few days to recover from but I'd probably still avoid the Instagram-tastic big hitting super long runs unless you're aiming to compete at the front end and perhaps hit up some doubles.

- I sometimes use a 100k race as a tune up about 8-10 weeks before to just try out being on the go for longer spells and keep it interesting

- I've also tried regimented walking breaks every x miles or minutes but honestly I find them annoying and frustrating so I just run until I need to walk now because it's a more enjoyable experience and trying to run so slow actually hurts more because of the forced change of gait. It's going to hurt at some point anyway so I'd rather be further along before it does.

- If you've got short loops on your race it's great because you don't have to carry anything but if you do need to carry stuff make sure you train with it too.

Banana Bread wrote:

Start an Instagram account. Become a vegan and start posting how great your lifestyle is. Stop shaving. Get a trucker hat. Go for long jogs on the beach. Replace your speedwork intervals with eating while gone for a hike. Take up yoga and start talking about how you can feel and sense the "vibrations" and "energy" and spend $10 on bite size paleo brownies. Listen to crap indie music and watch crap indie movies. in your spare time.

Absolutely garbage.

A proper ultra "runner" should be able to watch crap indie movies on their phone mid-"race", in the available gaps when they're not posting pics to Instagram...

Doesn't count unless you film it and post it to youtube.

Seems like Lets Run posters are very capable at criticising and mocking but utterly clueless as to how to approach such a race. Nobody is making you enter, morons - just see if you can be mature enough to activate your brain cells and apply your limited understanding of training to this hypothetical situation that the OP has presented.

If it were me I'd be running slow miles until my legs were ready to drop off. Recover and repeat.

Typical for LR wrote:

If it were me I'd be running slow miles until my legs were ready to drop off. Recover and repeat.

Agreed. All other workouts are a waste of time for this race.

Gggiggidy wrote:

Typical for LR wrote:

If it were me I'd be running slow miles until my legs were ready to drop off. Recover and repeat.

Agreed. All other workouts are a waste of time for this race.

I'm doing a 24hr race in 11 weeks.

My plan is predominately to increase mileage as suggested above. Had an easy few weeks, so ready for the final 10 week push - then 1 week taper.

I plan on one recovery day a week - so 6 days of high mileage with doubles and 1 day easy 10M. Not in the best shape right now, so will start with 100mpw or so. Hoping to get at least 2 or 3 200+M weeks done. Preferably consecutive.

Will probably have a few weeks where I take a bigger recovery and get a faster long run done. So something like Sun, Mon, Tues recovery, Wed 20-30 steady, Thurs, Fri recovery, Sat 30 easy, Sun recovery, Then back to mileage on Monday.

Last few weeks will aim to get one very long (40+) and one faster paced (20-30ish) done with everything else recovery - trying to convert that bulk mileage into an ability for one-off big efforts.

But all this is theoretical and ideal. Training never quite goes that way.

Hope your race goes well, OP. How about posting up what you are doing?

Here's some serious advice. Look up Bob Deines training. He got 4th at the Olympic marathon trials in 68 and went on to break the American 50 mile record. His training was pretty simple. 100+ miles a week in singles. Usually about a 2 hour jog on the week days and would usually do a race on Saturday and a 3+ hour jog on Sunday.

I ran several 50 milers prior to my first 100 which took me a little over 25 hours and was my goal. My fastest 50 was sub 10 hours but I didn't push hard during the 100 miler.

50 mpw or higher training is fine. Hours long weekend runs under difficult conditions (high heat and humidity) are helpful. Don't worry about late night training. It won't matter. Just be well rested the week before the race. A mental attitude that you just won't quit is all you need. It is most important to plan your nutritional intake and test it prior to the race. In the final hours everything tastes like crap and you may not want to eat but it's important to keep feeding yourself.

Good luck.

Banana Bread wrote:

Start an Instagram account. Become a vegan and start posting how great your lifestyle is. Stop shaving. Get a trucker hat. Go for long jogs on the beach. Replace your speedwork intervals with eating while gone for a hike. Take up yoga and start talking about how you can feel and sense the "vibrations" and "energy" and spend $10 on bite size paleo brownies. Listen to crap indie music and watch crap indie movies. in your spare time.

Couldn´t you literally come up with something that hasn´t been written a million times before?

Idiot alert wrote:

Banana Bread wrote:

Start an Instagram account. Become a vegan and start posting how great your lifestyle is. Stop shaving. Get a trucker hat. Go for long jogs on the beach. Replace your speedwork intervals with eating while gone for a hike. Take up yoga and start talking about how you can feel and sense the "vibrations" and "energy" and spend $10 on bite size paleo brownies. Listen to crap indie music and watch crap indie movies. in your spare time.

Couldn´t you literally come up with something that hasn´t been written a million times before?

You're the idiot for not realizing that he is just making fun of a stereotype.

Alpha male mentality wrote:

Here's some serious advice. Look up Bob Deines training. He got 4th at the Olympic marathon trials in 68 and went on to break the American 50 mile record. His training was pretty simple. 100+ miles a week in singles. Usually about a 2 hour jog on the week days and would usually do a race on Saturday and a 3+ hour jog on Sunday.

Respectfully, a 50M and a 24hr are as similar as a 10k and a 50M.

I currently run around 50-60mpw with 2 speed sessions, tempo, and long run. I would immediately throw all that out the window. I would do two back-to-back long runs on the weekend and then one mid-week long run. I would intentionally do one of them while sleep deprived. I would go by time and start the back-to-backs at like 2 hrs and 2 hrs, and build it up to 6 hrs and 6 hrs, plus add in some night hikes and long walks until I'm on my feet 12 hrs a day both Sat and Sun. Then I would start doing the Sat run at night and the Sun run in the morning and eventually merge the two into one session. Assuming I was bent on doing this for whatever reason... I'd then go back to 5k training and see how much worse I'd gotten

Assuming you have run ultras before, at least one 50 miler you don't need to change much if anything.

30-50 miles per week is plenty. It's more important that you start out very slow and keep moving through the whole 24 hours. Be committed. A 24 hour race is mostly mental, if you legs can take it. At one point you probably have to walk and later you might walk a lot. That is normal if you are not that experienced or a really good 24 hour runner.

Again, be committed. You will have all kinds of issues but you have to stay on the course in order to make miles. It doesn't matter so much what you can do in the first 12 hours. It's more important what you can do in the last 8 hours.

(Running 24 hour and longer for over 25 years)